Sardar Sarovar Dam height increased

The raising of the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, that had earned the wrath of environmentalists, was completed on Sunday.

The resulting power produced will meet the demand of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

The work for increasing the height to 121.92 metres was faciliated by the Supreme Court.

Chairman of Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited hydroelectric power project Pravin K Laheri told PTI that raising the dam's height has made it possible to generate its full installed capacity of 1,450MW of power.

Up to 5,700 crore cubic feet of water will now be available for irrigation and power generation at the dam.

Out of the installed power-generation capacity of 1,450MW Madhya Pradesh has a 57 per cent share, Maharastra 27 per cent and Gujarat has 16 percent share.

The storage will enable assumed irrigation in four lakh hectares of land around Sardar Sarovar project.

It will enable total hydropower generation of 440 crore units of electricity annually, Laheri said.